Nicole Kidman Was Injured Multiple Times Working on ‘Moulin Rouge’
Nicole Kidman has starred in Viking revenge sagas and superhero flicks, but the role that wreaked havoc on her body was an unlikely source of pain for the Australian icon. Moulin Rouge! proved to be a challenging production that led to a flurry of injuries, ultimately costing her a coveted role opposite another Hollywood star. Despite adversity in both her career and private life at the time, Kidman would emerge from Moulin Rouge! more popular than ever despite the production woes.
Nicole Kidman broke two ribs while filming ‘Moulin Rouge!’
Filming for Moulin Rouge! involved plenty of late nights as director Baz Luhrmann looked to perfect the movie’s signature dance routines. As Kidman explained on the Graham Norton Show, she was still on set at three in the morning on one occasion when she tumbled down steps in high heels. The result was a broken rib that made her scenes even more difficult than they already were.
According to the Daily Mail, which quotes the full Graham Norton interview, that’s about when it went from bad to worse. “I then rebroke my rib getting into a corset,” Kidman explained. “I had this thing that I wanted to get my waist down to 18 inches, which Vivian Leigh had on ‘Gone with the Wind’ and I was just like, ‘tighter, tighter!'” More than just performing through pain, Kidman admitted she also had to overcome intense anxiety about singing in front of the camera.
But Kidman was outwardly undaunted by the experience. “I’m dancing in high heels, I broke my ribs, I tore up my knee,” she said in a 2014 interview with Yahoo! Entertainment. “I did all the things you’re meant to do while creating great art.”
Nicole Kidman’s knee injury forced her out of ‘Panic Room’
After wrapping Moulin Rouge!, Kidman quickly got ready for another physically demanding shoot. Kidman had signed on to the starring role of Panic Room, director David Fincher’s follow-up to his popular 1999 dark comedy Fight Club. But even though Kidman had recovered from her rib injuries, another injury from Moulin Rouge! proved too much to overcome.
While filming the now-famous “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” routine, Kidman fell and tore cartilage in her knee. According to The Richest, the lingering knee injury from Moulin Rouge! forced Kidman to leave after a few weeks of production on Panic Room. EW speculated at the time that it would be very difficult to find another major star, with most of the big names already locked into other projects. Luckily, Fincher was able to bring in Oscar winner Jodie Foster on short notice, saving the production.
Even though Kidman was only on the Panic Room set for a few weeks, she still managed to have a major impact on another up-and-coming star. Kristen Stewart was only 10 years old when production on Panic Room started, with Stewart set to play Kidman’s daughter in her first major Hollywood film.
Years later, in an Actors on Actors interview for Variety, Stewart had nothing but good things to say about Kidman. “You were so nice to me and I had the best time,” she told Kidman. “It was a short period of time but I was always like, oh yeah, she’s one of my friends.” Solidifying the bond, Kidman even got the young Stewart walkie-talkies for Christmas that year – something Stewart remembered more than two decades later.
Nicole Kidman rebounded into a period of widespread acclaim after ‘Moulin Rouge!’
Right around the time she was forced to pull out of Panic Room, Kidman was also dealing with another traumatic experience: her divorce from Tom Cruise. Via People, Kidman and Cruise announced their separation less than two weeks after Kidman dropped from Panic Room, ending a 10-year marriage between the Hollywood superstars.
Later that month, production would begin on the movie which would prove to be a defining moment in Kidman’s career. Although Kidman would eventually nab her first Oscar nomination for Moulin Rouge!, it was her role as iconic writer Virginia Woolf in The Hours that would bring her to the peak of acclaim. Kidman spent hours each day with the makeup department to complete her transformation into Woolf, according to SF Gate.
Following the turbulent winter for Kidman, the successful launch of Moulin Rouge! in May of 2021 solidified Kidman’s status as both Hollywood superstar and acclaimed actor. Although Kidman would lose out to Halle Berry (Monster’s Ball) at the following Oscars, Kidman won the Best Actress Oscar for a Leading Actress the following year for her work on The Hours (via IMDb). More recently, Kidman nabbed her fifth overall Oscar nomination while playing Lucille Ball in Being the Ricardos.
Later this year, Kidman will be back on the big screen alongside Jason Momoa and Ben Affleck for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, one of the most anticipated releases of the 2023 holiday season.
